Most difficult part of your job?

[Llanigraham]

1/ Getting up at 0400 to leave home at 0430 to get into work for a 12 hour shift at 0530.
2/ Having to deal with offensive drivers who think that trains and level crossing barriers are solely put there to delay their journey.

 

[fowler9]

Best part of my job is going home. Ha ha.

 

[theironroad]

Stupid o clock shift times, getting up at 0300 isn't good.

Unless you're very motivated and a very good planner, it's very easy to end up eating unhealthily on shift work. Not impossible to overcome but has to be worked at.

 

[Emmsie]

Not actually knowing when your break is or where until you book onto your shift. The RMs love to change your diagram

 

[tsr]

Fire in a tunnel.
Broken rail in a tunnel.
Icicles in a tunnel.
Balcombe Tunnel.
Trespassers in a tunnel.
(Replace "in a tunnel" with "on a viaduct" for alternative flavours of disaster.)

Driver doesn't sign xyz curve so you'll have to reverse twenty miles away.
The train in front of your train home has broken down at 0110hrs. Wrong direction movement back to previous station. Stop there for the second time, an hour later. Broken down train promptly clears the line.

Service shown as delayed and formed of 2 coaches. Everyone shouts at you. Turns up on time, and formed of 8.

Email received saying train is cancelled. Severe delay whilst email is clarified. Service ordered to run. Cancelled several stops later due to late running.

Locking a coach out of use due to vomit/rabies/plague. Vomit/rabies/plague is between self and at least two of the doors needing to be locked.

Terminating a 12 coach train at an 8 coach platform. With a PA failure.

BTP / enforcement officers / revenue were there 5 minutes ago. Then: "Sorry guv, no money". Everyone has now disappeared.

"Something untoward on the track." Gulp. (Turns out to be foxes, but you know...)

Finish 0200 Sunday. Book on 0330 Monday.

Walking route flooded. Quite cold.
The vending machine cannot differentiate between tea, coffee, soup or soap.
Soap has run out in dispensers requiring soap.
Coffee has run out.
Tea has run out.
Nobody normally chooses the soup.

Soup in a tunnel.
Stuck in the tunnel with soup, behind broken rail.
Soup is cold.
Very cold.
At least it's not as cold as that time you got stuck at Crystal Palace. Or Balcombe. Or some other place with a tunnel.

 

[baz962]

Fire in a tunnel.
Broken rail in a tunnel.
Icicles in a tunnel.
Balcombe Tunnel.
Trespassers in a tunnel.
(Replace "in a tunnel" with "on a viaduct" for alternative flavours of disaster.)

Driver doesn't sign xyz curve so you'll have to reverse twenty miles away.
The train in front of your train home has broken down at 0110hrs. Wrong direction movement back to previous station. Stop there for the second time, an hour later. Broken down train promptly clears the line.

Service shown as delayed and formed of 2 coaches. Everyone shouts at you. Turns up on time, and formed of 8.

Email received saying train is cancelled. Severe delay whilst email is clarified. Service ordered to run. Cancelled several stops later due to late running.

Locking a coach out of use due to vomit/rabies/plague. Vomit/rabies/plague is between self and at least two of the doors needing to be locked.

Terminating a 12 coach train at an 8 coach platform. With a PA failure.

BTP / enforcement officers / revenue were there 5 minutes ago. Then: "Sorry guv, no money". Everyone has now disappeared.

"Something untoward on the track." Gulp. (Turns out to be foxes, but you know...)

Finish 0200 Sunday. Book on 0330 Monday.

Walking route flooded. Quite cold.
The vending machine cannot differentiate between tea, coffee, soup or soap.
Soap has run out in dispensers requiring soap.
Coffee has run out.
Tea has run out.
Nobody normally chooses the soup.

Soup in a tunnel.
Stuck in the tunnel with soup, behind broken rail.
Soup is cold.
Very cold.
At least it's not as cold as that time you got stuck at Crystal Palace. Or Balcombe. Or some other place with a tunnel.

Quite possibly the funniest post i ever read, Makes me look forward to my new career immensely lol.

 

[tsr]

Quite possibly the funniest post i ever read, Makes me look forward to my new career immensely lol.

M'pleasure. But don't worry, most of the soup is actually either underrated or at least drinkable.

 

[theironroad]

Lol@tsr

Very good

 

[axlecounter]

In my career I’ve learned that, while this is scientifically unjustifiable, there really are some drivers/guards much more prone to having big problems than others. Are you one of those?

 

[baz962]

M'pleasure. But don't worry, most of the soup is actually either underrated or at least drinkable.

Hope they have a wide range of soup .

 

[Emmsie]

Oh yes loads of choice.

 

[kevconnor]

Fire in a tunnel.
Broken rail in a tunnel.
Icicles in a tunnel.
Balcombe Tunnel.
Trespassers in a tunnel.
(Replace "in a tunnel" with "on a viaduct" for alternative flavours of disaster.)

Driver doesn't sign xyz curve so you'll have to reverse twenty miles away.
The train in front of your train home has broken down at 0110hrs. Wrong direction movement back to previous station. Stop there for the second time, an hour later. Broken down train promptly clears the line.

Service shown as delayed and formed of 2 coaches. Everyone shouts at you. Turns up on time, and formed of 8.

Email received saying train is cancelled. Severe delay whilst email is clarified. Service ordered to run. Cancelled several stops later due to late running.

Locking a coach out of use due to vomit/rabies/plague. Vomit/rabies/plague is between self and at least two of the doors needing to be locked.

Terminating a 12 coach train at an 8 coach platform. With a PA failure.

BTP / enforcement officers / revenue were there 5 minutes ago. Then: "Sorry guv, no money". Everyone has now disappeared.

"Something untoward on the track." Gulp. (Turns out to be foxes, but you know...)

Finish 0200 Sunday. Book on 0330 Monday.

Walking route flooded. Quite cold.
The vending machine cannot differentiate between tea, coffee, soup or soap.
Soap has run out in dispensers requiring soap.
Coffee has run out.
Tea has run out.
Nobody normally chooses the soup.

Soup in a tunnel.
Stuck in the tunnel with soup, behind broken rail.
Soup is cold.
Very cold.
At least it's not as cold as that time you got stuck at Crystal Palace. Or Balcombe. Or some other place with a tunnel.

An excellent post and a delight to read. Sense of humour reminds me of writings of poet Simon Armitage.

 

[tsr]

In my career I’ve learned that, while this is scientifically unjustifiable, there really are some drivers/guards much more prone to having big problems than others. Are you one of those?

Not really. Everything has its benefits, anyway. You can heat up the soup with a good tunnel fire.

 

[Derbyrailway1]

The public, the shifts, the lack of sleep, the lack of days available in the week to drink alcohol when you don't have to be up at some small hour of the morning.

 

[332 > 444]

Front end turns, too many of them.

 

[Panupreset]

Worst:
0350 start on a Saturday. And it's your sixth early on the trot.

Running late big time on your last trip of a diagram that's been modified to 10hours knowing the train you were booked pass home on (the last one of the day) will have departed by the time you get to destination, and your going to have to get the firm to get you a taxi and wait around for said taxi at 0030 in the cold, rain, and today is your 10th day on the trot at work.

Changing ends at a major London terminus in the morning peak with 1000 people walking towards you all on their phones because they have not been able to have a phone signal for the final 90 seconds of their journey.

Late night Friday/Saturday night train travel home. Getting on train and drunken people vomiting next to you.

The endless modified diagrams (never modified to be shorter) due to engineering work or sporting fixtures. Once went 6 months without doing a weekend job as per standing diagrams.

Best part
Having started early hours, changing ends in said terminus in morning peak knowing by the time said phone uses are at their desks, I will have train back in depot and be on way home (this diagram sadly does not occur frequently).

Spare on a Saturday afternoon watching rugby with mates in mess room getting take away in.

Driving a rural route at night away from light pollution and being able to see the stars really clearly.

Watching a beautiful sunrise as you drive through the countryside.

Going 100mph in the dark. I still find that cool.

Making kids smile when they wave and you make their day by waving back.

 

[Grannyjoans]

Shifts don't bother me because I do permanent lates but if I did earlies and nights again it would be horrendous.

1) Dealing with uncomfortable cab conditions / poor cab ergonomics and all the associated neck & back & knee pains. We're talking about units such as 14X's 15X's.

2) Dealing with the fact that Drivers from other TOC's with newer trains get nice comfortable cabs, stop at less stations and get paid more money!

3) Some Routes/Diagrams which contain Boring, repetitive, all-stops work, with a sluggish unit and not much more than a mile between stations and no scenery at all.

4) The general public. They all stare at anyone in uniform. Then when your in the middle of an important task such as disposing of a Cab or Coupling/Uncoupling they start banging on your window expecting you to stop doing what your doing immediately and answer their question despite the fact that there's platform staff stood nearby doing nothing. The distraction then causes me to make a stupid mistake which then causes a delay that makes me look stupid.

 

[Barry K]

Best part of the job is when you've picked up a particularly complicated task on a log, and not only been able to find that last little nugget of info that has evaded the operator that was working on it before, but use that nugget to get the right butts kicked into the right gear in the right places, and send it to the boss for closure.

Also, TFW All Hell is breaking loose across the network, just as you log out to hand over to the next shift!

But also TFW you 've just worked on a complex breakdown with a panicking female with young child who cannot remember her recovery operator, and yet you managed to figure out who she's with, calm her down, get a unit for a welfare check, and get it all sorted before you go on your break!

 

[fowler9]

Shifts don't bother me because I do permanent lates but if I did earlies and nights again it would be horrendous.

1) Dealing with uncomfortable cab conditions / poor cab ergonomics and all the associated neck & back & knee pains. We're talking about units such as 14X's 15X's.

2) Dealing with the fact that Drivers from other TOC's with newer trains get nice comfortable cabs, stop at less stations and get paid more money!

3) Some Routes/Diagrams which contain Boring, repetitive, all-stops work, with a sluggish unit and not much more than a mile between stations and no scenery at all.

4) The general public. They all stare at anyone in uniform. Then when your in the middle of an important task such as disposing of a Cab or Coupling/Uncoupling they start banging on your window expecting you to stop doing what your doing immediately and answer their question despite the fact that there's platform staff stood nearby doing nothing. The distraction then causes me to make a stupid mistake which then causes a delay that makes me look stupid.

The company I work for is taking on in the call centre if you fancy a change.

 

[Minilad]

Listening to people telling me I don't deserve to paid what I am. And "experts" who think they know how to do my job

 

[Dieseldriver]

Listening to people telling me I don't deserve to paid what I am. And "experts" who think they know how to do my job

Yup.
'Oh you're a Train Driver, that's mega money'.
'That must be an easy job'.
'You ever killed anyone?'
I tell people I'm a cleaner now.

 

[axlecounter]

“Why are trains always late?” Obviously asked on a day off, mostly from people who never take a train.

 

[Southernsig]

“Why are trains always late?” Obviously asked on a day off, mostly from people who never take a train.

Exactly this!!! I get messeaged by people asking why or moaning that their train is delayed...... Dunno,don't care, not my area of control!

 

[Ianno87]

“Why are trains always late?” Obviously asked on a day off, mostly from people who never take a train.

I most enjoy it when they're corrected by an actual regular "well, it's usually fine, actually".

 

[fowler9]

“Why are trains always late?” Obviously asked on a day off, mostly from people who never take a train.

Ha ha. I once worked with a girl who drove to work that was late every day even though she had a company parking space right outside the office. Her reason was that it should only take her ten minutes to drive to work, she timed it once on a Sunday afternoon. Her excuse one day (Gods honest truth) was that she needed an unexpected poo before leaving the house. Somehow she was never sacked. She did get sacked from the next job she got at a housing association I used to work for. I warned her she would and she thought I was being insulting.